Arts Illustrated

“Art IS a contact sport….”

The motivation behind – Arts Illustrated
The arts (visual arts, music, writing, dance and acting) add tremendous value and content to our world and ourselves. Having been an artist all my life, and an art dealer involved in all aspects of the arts for the last 37 years, I have had a close, professional involvement with the arts and artists. Over the years, I have observ

ed a number of talented artist’s careers first hand. The greatest reason for this failure is a lack self-promotion, or simply put “marketing.”

As important and wonderful as the arts are to our lives, for the artists their greatest gift “sensitivity” is also their greatest enemy. Sensitivity gives artists the ability to see, be inspired and create. On the other hand – sensitivity tends to make creative people shy, humble, and usually not great about self-promotion. Compare this to sports, which is entertainment. Entertainment aims to engage, amuse and interest a public (“public” can consist of one person) for a short period of distraction. Also by its very nature, entertainment is very good at self-promotion, this has helped make sports very successful and now it is a multi-billion dollar industry. The arts, on the other hand, due to its sensitivity, are not good at self promotion, but is used to promote everything else in the world. The arts are the first to be cut in schools, arts organizations struggle financially, artists are always being asked to do things for free because “Its just that thing that you do.” All due to a lack of understanding about what the arts really are, the work, commitment and talent, and art’s incredible contributions to all our lives. Arts Illustrated is going to steal (good artists copy, great artists steal – Picasso) a page right out of the play books of ESPN, Entertainment Tonight, and yes even Sports Illustrated. The arts need to truly promote and celebrate their heroes and heroines, their creations and engage in their issues. This starts with this state-of-the-art (sorry), online publication named ArtsIllustrated.com. The arts represent substance, the wonderful use of creativity and use of the imagination. Arts Illustrated will celebrate that. and Susie S.